


Nevertheless, We’re Human

by Spud_Ladybug



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Maes Hughes Lives, The character death is Jasper lol, Time Travel, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:02:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29481900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spud_Ladybug/pseuds/Spud_Ladybug
Summary: After shattering Jasper, Steven wanted nothing more than to take it all back. He never meant it so literally though...
Comments: 8
Kudos: 9





	1. Chapter 1

Steven cried, fat tears rolling down his cheeks. His breath came out in short gasps, and his hands, submerged in bath water, shook so much that they nearly dropped the reddish-orange shards in his hands.

The teen heard two things as he closed his eyes. One, Pearl knocking on the door. Two, the small clinking sound of strong glass hitting the ground.

“Steven? Are you alright?”

Steven found himself unable to respond. He felt frozen right now. It was sinking in. Gem or not, he knew what he did. He shattered her. He had just killed someone without mercy. He... _murdered_ her.

His cries increased in sound and frequency. Pearl’s worried voice floated through the door.

“Steven? I’m coming in!”

As the door creaked open, Steven whispered to himself,

“ _I wish this never_ _happened...”_


	2. Trifling with Time

Steven kept his eyes stubbornly shut as his tears started dripping from his chin. He didn’t want to face Pearl after what he did...he didn’t want to face anyone after what he did. He could hear the soft splashes of his tears, and more unexpectedly, he could feel the warmth of his healing.

Was he healing Jasper? Could he do that? Slowly, he peeled open his eyes as the glow started fading. 

But instead of being in front of his bathtub, he was in front of an old-timey looking phone booth, and instead of a gemstone glowing beneath him, there was a very real and very human body, surrounded by drying blood.

“Steven? Are you alright?” Steven shook a bit.   
“Where are we Pearl? What happened?” Pearl looked around, humming in thought.  
“Well, by our surroundings, it looks like we’re in the early 1900s of human history...”

“Wait...so we’re in the past? How?” Pearl pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.   
“Probably because our resident Amethyst was too lazy to remember to bubble the new time glass we found...”   
“You found another time glass? “ Steven gaped as Pearl began to explain.

“Well, Lapis and Amethyst apparently found this one while skimming the ocean for ‘funky junk’. It was a gem powered one, so we were planning on freeing the gem inside soon with Bismuth’s help...but then this happened.”

Steven nodded in acknowledgement to Pearl’s information.  
“So what do we do now?” Pearl started to speak once more.  
“Well for now it would be best if we found a way to integrate into society to blend into the time period and location. Us simply being here is a change in time already, so the point is not to create any major disturbances while we’re here looking for a way back.”

Steven laughed nervously.   
“So would healing this guy count as a major disturbance?” Pearl’s gaze finally happened upon the resting military man in the phone booth, whose body and hair now sported a pink color scheme. Her eyes widened.

“Oh fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	3. That’s Stealing Pearl!

Steven felt himself get tugged and dragged away from the phone booth by Pearl, who was now running a distance with him behind her. 

“Pearl!!! Where are we going?” Pearl stopped to let him catch his breath, beginning to explain their sudden departure.  
“Steven, did you not see all the blood? We clearly showed up at a crime scene! If we stayed any longer we could’ve been seen by one person, that alone would be enough to make us suspects for murder!”

“Murder?!”  
“Steven I helped fake a murder, I’d know what one looks like.” Pearl replied flatly.  
Steven flinched a bit at the allusion to Pink Diamond, but shook it off. Now wasn’t the time to think of his mother, and frankly, he didn’t want to.

“But what about the man? We just left him there...he’ll be so confused!” Pearl sighed.  
“Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do about that right now...though, hopefully he’ll be confused enough by the situation that he won’t notice I stole his wallet!” Pearl smirked with a poised smugness veiled by a cheery, sing-song tone.

Steven stared at her incredulously.  
“PEARL!” The slender gem laughed softly.  
“Pearl, that’s stealing! I’d expect something like this from Amethyst or Garnet, but you?”

“Sorry Steven, but we’re going to need money if we’re going to make it here.” Pearl produced a pile of clothing from her gem, handing them over to the teen.  
“Get changed into those. After I check how much we have, we can try to find temporary lodgings.” The gem herself had already changed her form to display a long-sleeved blouse with a long, high waisted skirt.  
“Can I at least keep the jacket?”  
Pearl put a hand on her chin in thought.  
“I suppose...but if it draws too much attention then you can’t keep wearing it.”  
Steven nodded, changing behind some bushes as Pearl began carding through the man’s wallet.

“Hmmm...well his identification has him marked as ‘Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes’. Looks like you won’t have to worry too much Steven, if he’s military, he definitely has someone looking for him!” 

Steven walked over in his new clothes, sighing in relief. He focused his gaze on the wallet.  
“So what else is in there? You find any money yet?” As he said this, a line of photos flapped down from the wallet, surprising the gem and hybrid.

“Awww...look, they’re all pictures of his family! Good to know I saved a nice guy instead of some kind of mass murderer.”  
“Well you can’t always trust appearances Steven.” With a little more searching, Pearl found what appeared to be some kind of currency within the wallet. Two bills marked 5,000, one marked 1,000, and a small variety of coins.

Steven looked at they curiously.  
“Well, it looks like European money, but the numbers only really fit Japanese currency?”  
Pearl made a sudden noise of excitement.  
“Steven...this isn’t European or Japanese currency. This is...Amestrian currency! This is incredible! We’re actually in Amestris!”

Steven looked confused.   
“Amestris? Where’s that?”  
Pearl continued.  
“Amestris is practically like a landlocked Atlantis! It rose into power as a small warmongering country during Earth’s First World War, and then after becoming a democracy, it practically vanished into Germany during the second one. No one knows if any part of the country lived on, but there’s many theories about what happened to it and why we can only find so few artifacts. I can’t believe we’re actually here of all places!” His guardian’s eyes were practically shining.

“Amestris...” Steven sounded out the word, feeling how it rolled off his tongue. Pearl looked back to the money.   
“Well, this looks like about enough to cover at least two nights in a decent inn. Are you ready to go?” Steven adjusted his socks and dusted off his jacket.  
“All set. Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	4. Sworn to Silence

“Lieutenant Colonel Hughes! Hughes? Please wake up Maes...” The first thing Maes Hughes woke up to was his best friend’s voice. That and a throbbing pain in his chest. 

Strange...last time he checked, this was a penetrating, deathly pain, not a large bruise kind of pain. 

“Ugh...Roy? What happened? What’s going on?” His hands went to his chest, opening up his uniform and shirt. Where he expected to see a gushing wound near his heart, he instead found a large, faint pink scar, already completely healed over.

“I was going to ask you that. I got so worried when you called me. Was this some kind of prank? It looks like someone knocked you out and bleached your hair!” Maes looked at his friend, confused.   
“What? I could have sworn I was being attacked...” Roy checked him over for injuries, pausing at the striking scar that adorned his chest, and tensing in shock when he took his pulse. 

“Hughes...how are you alive? Your pulse is so slow, it shouldn’t be sustaining your body like it is.”  
“What?” The investigations officer put his fingers to his wrist, feeling the impossibly spaced out thumps of his blood. How...what was going on? 

“What happened to you Hughes?” The events of the last night came flashing back. Discovering the circle, the strange woman with the tattoo, the shapeshifter, getting shot, soft boyish sobs. He snapped up.

“Roy! The country—Mmmphh!”  
Maes’s hands flew to his mouth against his own will. He tried to speak, say anything about what happened that night, but all that came out was muffled cries through his hands. He couldn’t speak a single word of the events of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oop—


	5. Move, I’m Gay

Roy Mustang stared at his friend’s struggles to speak in horror. What was wrong with him? Why was Hughes’s hair so pale? Why was his pulse so slow? What was going on?

“Let’s review what we think we know. One, you were attacked by someone. Two, someone most likely healed you from near-death. Three, for some reason you can’t speak about any of this?” Maes nodded shakily, hands slowly falling down from being clamped over his mouth.

“Roy...it feels like something ingrained in my very soul is swearing me to silence.” Mustang was taken aback.  
“What? How is that even possible?”

“I’m not sure...I just know that every time I try to speak about it, there’s a voice in my head that tells me I can’t. I feel like...I’m being ordered to stay quiet!” Roy scratched his chin in thought.  
“Maybe...is it possible that the person who healed you wanted you to keep quiet about it?”  
“You may be onto something...”

Steven sneezed, tucking his head into his arm.  
“Bless you!” Pearl exclaimed, then smirked.  
“Good to know you’re finally learning to sneeze into your elbow.” Steven smiled back.  
“You know, they say that if you sneeze, it means someone’s talking about you.” The gem scoffed as she tied a headband over her gem.  
“That’s just preposterous!”  
The two residents of the future shared a laugh.

They made their way up the road to a modest but tidy looking hotel. As the pair made their way into the main floor, Steven internally groaned as he saw several bellhops giving Pearl heart eyes. He dragged her towards the main desk, pushing aside the staff that offered assistance, simply stating  
“Move, she’s gay!”

Pearl sighed, and looked to the desk attendant.  
“Could we get a room for two nights please?” The attendant nodded, fetching a key on a string.

“Of course! Here’s your room key! Be sure to hold onto it and return it when you’re planning on leaving!”

Upon unlocking the door and walking into the room, Steven immediately collapsed onto one of the twin beds.  
“So Pearl, what’s next? Where do we start?”

“Well, we need to make money and blend in. And I think I know the best way to do it.” Steven gave her a questioning look.  
“And what’s that?” Pearl stood tall, giving him a pure look of determination.  
“I’m going to become a State Alchemist.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	6. Jasper

“State Alchemist? What’s that?” Pearl tapped her chin, trying to come up with a logical way to explain.  
“Well, it’s like a scientist...who’s also a soldier. Does that make any sense?” Steven hmmms.  
“I guess so. It makes sense for you to try it then, right? You’re super smart and know science stuff, and you have plenty of experience from being a soldier in the gem war!” Pearl nods and smiles.

“Well, it’s settled then. Hopefully I can pass the test and get myself a moneymaking job!” Steven gives her a thumbs up.  
“I’m sure you’ll pass Pearl! You’re great at tests!” Pearl chuckled, then grew serious.  
“Steven, now that we’ve settled down and made a plan, I’d like to talk about what happened a few days ago.”

Steven froze up, a pink glow encasing his body.  
“Ahaha, look at the time! I think I’d like to go to sleep now!”  
“Steven! We need to talk about this!” Pearl’s tone rose in volume, and the tension in the room tightened, so thick it almost felt suffocating. 

Steven’s voice deepened into a growl.  
“I don’t want to talk about this Pearl...”  
“Steven please...I’m worried about you...” Steven sighed.  
“Can we least just save it for tomorrow?” Pearl nodded shakily, tears in the corner of her eyes. Steven didn’t like the fact that he made her cry, but...he couldn’t talk about what was going on with him right now. He couldn’t talk about—Jasper.

Roy inspected the small pile of russet stones as he and his friend climbed into his car. And then promptly dropped them onto the ground as they glowed and took the form of grotesque disconnected, orange limbs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter curse oof


	7. Creative Title (Lol sorry children I’m tired)

The Colonel stumbled back, repulsed by the sight of the squirming body pieces. What were these? It left him with a churning feeling in his gut, like he could retch at any given moment.  
“Roy? What’s wrong?”  
Testing his luck, Roy stamped down on one of the arms with the heel of his boot, gasping slightly when it gave into his force with a burst of dust, leaving only the a shard from before.

“Roy?” The man dispatched the rest of the limbs in a similar fashion, recoiling a bit as each gave in so simply. He picked up the now sickeningly warm fragments, handling them like hot coals.  
“Hughes, get me a plastic bag. I need something to contain these.” The Lieutenant Colonel fishes a small bag out of the glove box of the car, handing it over to Roy, who instantly dropped the shards into as if they physically hurt to hold. He cleared his throat, hoping to cover up the overwhelming anxiety he was feeling in the moment.

“W-well, it looks like a call to the Elric brothers is in order.” Roy grimaced slightly at the crack in his voice. At least it was only Maes, but did he have to feel so weak at a time like this? He supposed it was only natural at a time like this, seeing as his friend had almost died, followed by these hellish rocks.

Hands shaking, Roy dialed the Dublith number. A passive aggressive voice chimed from the other end of the line.  
“This is the Curtis residence, how may I help you?” Pleading his voice not to crack, Roy breathlessly rasped out his request.  
“May I pass a message to the Elrics please? I found something I think they need to see. Tell them it’s related to the Philosopher’s Stone.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lil chappie

**Author's Note:**

> I am once again making a new crossover fic


End file.
